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Yes. His back. He got position and backed Griffin out of bounds. That's a foul.
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I feel like I am watching the destruction of our democracy while my neighbors and friends cheer it on -
Regardless, I am enjoying the NCAA on demand...I feel like I am watching the destruction of our democracy while my neighbors and friends cheer it onComment
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As am I, CG...
March 17, 2009, 11:43 am When Losing Leads to Winning
By Justin Wolfers Here’s my favorite new fact about N.C.A.A. basketball: teams that are behind by one point at halftime are actually more likely to win than teams that are one point ahead. This striking finding comes courtesy of a terrific new paper by my Wharton colleagues, Jonah Berger and Devin Pope. Their findings are summarized in this graph, which collects info from 6,572 N.C.A.A. basketball games since 2005:
The first dot (on the bottom left) shows that among those teams behind by 10 points at halftime, only 11.8 percent won; the next dot shows that those behind by 9 points won 13.9 percent, and so on. The line of best fit (the solid line) shows that raising your halftime lead by two points tends to be associated with about an 8 percentage-point increase in your chances of winning, and this is a pretty smooth relationship.
But notice what happens when we contrast teams that are one point behind at halftime with teams that are one point ahead: the chances of winning suddenly fall by 2.4 percentage points, instead of rising by 8 percentage points.
Berger and Pope are two of the brightest young behavioral economists around, and they posit a behavioral explanation. Losing can lead to winning because of the strong motivating effects of being close to your goal. You can link some of this to Prospect Theory — loss aversion suggests that you may be willing to work harder to avoid a negative outcome (a loss); the leading teams, by contrast, aren’t focused on the losing domain. And in fact, most of this “catch-up” occurs in the first 10 minutes after halftime.
But how can we tell whether this is the losing team working harder, or the halftime leader easing up?
Here, they move from field evidence to the Wharton behavioral lab, setting up a very simple experiment in which their subjects were challenged to a trivial task — how many times they could type “a” then “b” in half a minute. The subjects were told that if they beat their opponent, they would get a bigger payout. After the first round of competition, some were given feedback, and others weren’t. And here’s the key to the experiment: they randomly told some folks that they were a long way behind their opponent, others were told they were a little bit behind, or exactly tied, a little ahead, or even a long way ahead. Those who were randomly told they were a little bit behind improved their performance dramatically, while the other groups improved by about the same amount as the control condition (that is, the same improvement as those given no feedback at all).
It’s an intriguing finding: being behind by a little yields the greatest possible effort. And while these researchers measure these effects on the basketball court, or on pounding keyboards, their implications for the rest of our lives are even more intriguing. Want your workers to work harder? Tell them that they are running a close second in the race for promotion.
Intrigued? See their write-up in Sunday’s New York Times, or the academic version, here.
To be a professional means that you don't die. - Takeru "the Tsunami" KobayashiComment
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That is exactly what happened. If that's a foul, it was a foul. But I always thought that trying to jump, and reach over a guy was a foul too...Originally posted by CGVT View PostTo be a professional means that you don't die. - Takeru "the Tsunami" KobayashiComment
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Michigan hasn't had the ass end of the calls. Both sides have taken some ticky-tack whistles, and then have gotten away with outright mugging.
That said, had you told the Sooners Harris and Sims would spend large portions of the first half on the bench, they'd think they'd be up by double digits. Michigan hanging in there tough.
Honestly, I think B. Griffin is in more pain than he wants to admit; he just hasn't looked the same in this game.Comment
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That's pretty much what I saw.Michigan hasn't had the ass end of the calls. Both sides have taken some ticky-tack whistles, and then have gotten away with outright muggingI feel like I am watching the destruction of our democracy while my neighbors and friends cheer it onComment
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I got LSU/NC on the tube and it's a hell of a game. UofM and OK on the computer.
Good times..I feel like I am watching the destruction of our democracy while my neighbors and friends cheer it onComment
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They have not gotten the better end of the calls when you take into account that the ticky tack calls were on Michigan's best players...To be a professional means that you don't die. - Takeru "the Tsunami" KobayashiComment
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Good stuff SLF! Makes sense. I loved the Freakonomics book. I assume this has some connection.Originally posted by SeattleLionsFan View PostComment
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Yeah, it is the blog written by leavitt and Dubner (and "recurring guest bloggers")
I also loved Freakonomics. It was a fun read.To be a professional means that you don't die. - Takeru "the Tsunami" KobayashiComment
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Beilien really needs to get a handle on this 2nd half meltdown thing for next year.Comment
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I don't know that I've ever seen a "slasher" with fewer foul calls than Manny Harris...To be a professional means that you don't die. - Takeru "the Tsunami" KobayashiComment
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That should have been an offensive foul...I feel like I am watching the destruction of our democracy while my neighbors and friends cheer it onComment
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No, only him going over your back is a foul. Him driving his shoulder into the defender "to create space for himself" is just good play.
I wish someone could explain fouls to me in way that showed they were actually being called properly on both sides.To be a professional means that you don't die. - Takeru "the Tsunami" KobayashiComment
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oh, that's an offensive foul too. Nevermind that exact same call went against michigan 3 times in the first half.Comment
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